Bear and I took a ride in the Jeep this morning…just a few miles north of South Fork, CO towards Creede.
Heading back towards South Fork, my folks home is in the valley which begins the west grade of Wolf Creek Pass.
The Rio Grande…looking a bit on the cool side.
Home :) !
And yes, it is as cold as it looks and forecast to get colder but all is warm aboard Wild Thing as well as in the house where roaring fires blaze in two wood stoves.
I don’t know why my mother is so exasperated getting supper on the table…
Work day today…
…sometimes it gets a bit boring…
But a beardog must stay vigilant!
Yowza! Mule deer here versus the whitetail deer at home. Well fed mule deer here!
The old man keeps a harem of 6 or 8. He keeps an eye out as they eat and follows them to safety back up the hill, guarding from the rear, when they move.
So…a first for me. The hard drive on my laptop failed. Probably my own fault for letting it ride on the dashboard of Wild Thing with no pad or cushioning.
The good news is that it gave me warning. The VERY good news is that I am a regular backer-upper – always have been. I back up to 2 external drives, keep them in separate locales…one which is the motorhome. I backed up before I left home and when I started getting warnings, I backed up the few new things.
And the VERY BEST news is that there is a wonderful tech shop here and Bryan took care of my computer toute suite and was pleasant as well. I was less than 24 hours without my laptop. He was able to clone the failing drive and as far as I can tell, nothing is lost and I have not had to reinstall anything…my work environment is intact. It is a big deal.
Meanwhile, I got Wild Thing cleaned up a bit and situated for a 10-14 day “park”, did some baking, walked with Bear and spent 24 hours without a computer. I was not really offline as my phone gets email, internet, etc. AND, my folks have computers that I could have used but I didn’t. And I lived :)! But, I’m glad to have the darn thing back. A lot of the info of my life lives on it…recipes!!, my financial information, recent photos…and oh, yes, my livelihood depends on what I do on this machine.
So…2 work days lost and 3 days of photos in the camera… eventually I’ll catch up with news and photos but for a day or so, it has to be work and family – family being why I’m here and glad to be here and enjoying every minute of both getting here and being here.
Arrived at my folks just after 3…got settled, walked Bear, had a wonderful dinner and first night visit.
Tired…more tomorrow with photos.
So good to be here :)!
Bear did wonderfully and this is so good for him as it is helping him learn about being around other dogs and new places. He gets a bit excited at first, but settles well.
Reports on Bob are good and as expected…he is very much enjoying being the center of attention.
Although about 33 miles shy of our original destination in Colorado Springs, CO, we are comfortably parked for the night just south of Castle Rock, CO in Jellystone RV park in Larkspur, CO…maybe 30 plus miles south of Denver.
It was the toughest driving day so far, although not horrible, just tiring. I waited until 8:30ish to leave Casper as it was 14F this morning and with the rain to snow thing I thought a little warming of the road might be in order. Bear and I had 2 nice long outings on the river walk before leaving which left me ready to do the miles with only short breaks so as to arrive Colorado Springs before dark.
At first, I thought I’d made a mistake as the road was bare and dry but about 80 miles down the road, the temperature dropped and I had about 20 miles of ice…then icy spots off and on, wind off and on although thankfully the wind was mostly hitting me from behind or on my right rear. I dearly hope that it helped my gas mileage as gas was .70/gal higher in Colorado!!!
We arrived at the Colorado Welcome center in Ft. Collins, CO about 1:30 for a break before tackling Denver.
Above…Bear with the Front Range in the distance. Blue sky, few clouds but a bit hazy.
Traffic picked up just as we approached Ft. Collins and continued until we hopped on the Denver E-470 tollway/bypass which we had mostly to ourselves. We rejoined I-25 south of Denver with 60 miles to our hoped for destination but only 25 to my fallback. I fell back and stopped at Jellystone RV Park in Larkspur, CO – was just tired and that extra 30-35 miles seemed a bit much AND would have us arriving at dusk if not full dark.
Jellystone is a kind of goofy park with questionable roads and not too level sites. I am level enough to keep the refrigerator “safe” but listing a bit to starboard and stern – I can’t get fully level without unhooking the Jeep so making do :)! AND mega $$ to boot at $50.55 but only a $7.00 break for electric only so I took full hookups so I can top water, dump tanks and arrive at my folks tomorrow ready for a 10-14 day park.
I hear tell that a turkey dinner may be in the making for my arrival… I’m ready…Bear and I just finished the last of the ribeye.